CHAPTER V – BRIDGING THE GAP THE INTERLINK WAY

Discover your target audience

Whilst statistics from MarketingSherpa show that 61% of B2B marketers send all their leads to sales, they also show that only 27% of those leads are considered ‘qualified’ or ‘actively looking to purchase’ by the sales team.

At the same time, InsideView statistics reveal that 27% of sales teams need higher quality leads from their marketing counterparts, while 15% just need bigger volumes.

So, achieving qualified, high-quality leads that are actively looking to purchase is the starting point. Rather than assuming the leads are or aren’t good, take a look at how they’re being assessed. Is there lead scoring in place? Do marketers have the best possible picture of your ideal buyer, like a persona? They need this information if they are to secure the qualified leads that sales want.

Then, you need to make sure you target your audience in the right stage of their buying cycle. This is where Interlink’s Discover solution comes in. Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, Discover is our clever algorithm-based intent targeting solution that generates highly accurate target audience data by identifying potential customers via their online intent signals. This level of detail enables us to help you generate more pipeline and puts your business ahead of the competition from the get-go – we make sure we deliver the right message, in front of the right people, at the right time. 

Engage with your leads

But simply knowing that a lead is qualified isn’t enough…

Imagine there’s an amazing cake at a café. It looks great, and the baker has told the café owner it’s delicious. That’s all – the café owner doesn’t know anything else. 

Now imagine that a customer comes in and asks questions like:

• What’s the flavour?
• What’s inside?
• Are there any allergens?
• Where was it made?
• When was it made?

One way that the café owner could answer some of these is if they cut open the cake and taste it – causing it to lose its value. The other would be to call the baker and ask – losing theirs and the customer’s time. So whilst the appearance of the cake might have been enough to attract potential customers, it’ll struggle to sell without the necessary information.

A similar thing happens between marketing and sales. A marketer gives a list of leads to the salesperson, with precisely no detail around their origin, unique selling or buying points, or how to approach them. Unless they spend their precious time gathering this information and engaging with a lead beforehand, the salesperson can do nothing else but say to the client: “It looks great. I’m told it’s delicious. Take it or leave it.”

By engaging with leads first, marketers are not only able to narrow the list down to the highest quality ones but also arm sales with all the information they need for further nurturing.

At Interlink, we understand how crucial those stages are. In essence, by using our intent targeting data, we discover the right leads for your business. Then, through our lead generation solution, we engage with them via email and telemarketing. As a result, we serve you a platter of high-quality, open to your communication, and in position to purchase leads with valuable information on top – there’s no need to cut the cake open!

Convert interest into opportunity

Now that the sales team has the right leads and all the necessary information, they can convert them. But this is easier said than done. To get those leads over the finish line, they need to be followed up in the right way – using the effective process outlined in the SLA and leveraging the powers of technology.

That’s where our third solution comes into play. Convert bridges the disconnect between sales and marketing by working closely with the sales team once they receive their leads.

IT decision-makers receive an average of at least 10 sales calls a week. With many salespeople using an identical introductory approach to kick off communications (often referring to the content they’ve seen), they’re likely to either not take the call or disengage very quickly.

Convert enables you to have a better conversation with prospects. Not only can we explain how other vendors and sales teams have used the data that we collect, but we can provide the crucial context needed to understand where leads have come from, and what to say to close the deal. Plus, we’ll offer our expertise on follow-up best practices, meaning shared targets can be met and ROI goals reached. That means higher conversion rates and increased revenue.

Download the full ebook on The Disconnect Between Marketing and Sales and learn more about: 

• What is “The Disconnect”?
• Why is there a disconnect?
• Understanding both sides
• Bridging the gap between Marketing and Sales